It’s been a tough couple of weeks for us in the United States. I find myself in the unusual position of having too much material to write about to focus on just one thing. A hurricane slammed the east coast, the Mayan calendar debacle had people worried about the end of the world and 20 innocent children were murdered by a psychopath.

The usual debates on how our society will address and solve future tragedies soon followed. If you have not thought about how you well you are prepared for an emergency, listening to those talking heads should have gotten you going. I will not add to the debate, but instead say that being prepared means being prepared in spite of what policy makers do or not do. It is taking ownership of your own preparedness. This concept was reinforced when Sandy hit the east coast and for days the residents of Staten Island and the Rockaways were forced to fend for themselves. We are always thinking that the next disaster would be a natural or man-made disaster; but what if it is a shift in society? Are you prepared for that? Below is an article regarding the thoughts of Jim Rogers, co-founder of the Quantum Fund. He has some predictions regarding our financial societal future. What would happen if people with money no longer have it and the power associated with that money shifted to those without it?

Article:

In 1973, George Soros and Jim Rogers co-founded The Quantum Fund. During the following 10 years, the portfolio gained 4200% while the S&P advanced about 47%. The Quantum Fund was one of the first truly international funds.

In December 2007, Rogers sold his mansion in New York City for about 16 million dollars and moved to Singapore. Rogers claimed that he moved because now is a ground-breaking time for investment potential in Asian markets. Rogers’s first daughter is now being tutored in Mandarin to prepare her for the future. He is quoted as saying: “If you were smart in 1807 you moved to London, if you were smart in 1907 you moved to New York City, and if you are smart in 2007 you move to Asia.” In a CNBC interview with Maria Bartiromo broadcast on May 5, 2008, Rogers said that people in China are extremely motivated and driven, and he wants to be in that type of environment, so his daughters are motivated and driven.

In 2002, Rogers said that Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan’s “reaction to the stock-market bubble has caused two more bubbles to grow: a real-estate bubble and a consumer-debt bubble.” In 2006, Rogers said he was shorting US financials, home builders and Fannie Mae.

On November 4, 2010, speaking at Oxford University’s Balliol College, Rogers urged students to scrap career plans for Wall Street or the City, London’s financial district, and to study agriculture and mining instead. “The power is shifting again from the financial centers to the producers of real goods. The place to be is in commodities, raw materials, natural resources.”

In May 2012 he remarked during an interview with Forbes Magazine that “there’s going to be a huge shift in American society, American culture, in the places where one is going to get rich. The stock brokers are going to be driving taxis. The smart ones will learn to drive tractors so they can work for the smart farmers. The farmers are going to be driving Lamborghinis. I’m telling you. You should start Forbes Farming.”